Why We Drink From Skulls at Mardi Gras

And more cocktail geneses for the biggest blowout in NOLA

New Orleans, legend has it, is where the term "cocktail" was coined. Origin stories are, as always, murky, but some point to the tradition of drinking absinthe as a health tonic for the origin of the American cocktail. A little cognac and sugar to help it go down easier: ecce Sazerac.

Centuries later, this grand tradition of mixed drinks has found a perfect home next to one of the city's other oldest customs: getting obliterated on Bourbon Street. Depending on your perspective, modern chemistry has either been kind or cruel to the initial spirit of mixology. But just in time for Mardi Gras, here's your guide to the traditional cocktails of New Orleans served in plastic novelty glasses.

Hurricane

This is the great granddaddy of debauchery, the font from which all other Bourbon Street cocktails spring. Served in a tall, flared glass resembling a hurricane lamp, this drink is strong, sweet, and so, so red. It comes complete with a blast of sugar capable of inducing diabetic coma long before the alcohol itself makes its way to your brain.

The Hurricane calls old-line watering hole Pat O'Briens home — rumor has it that the cocktail was originally a disposal strategy for large orders of rum, a less-popular liquor than whiskey but available in much greater quantity during World War II. It's remarkable not only for its longevity, but for its continued approximation of actual ingredients: you could theoretically make one at home with some fruit juice, rum, and grenadine.

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The name is also said to come from Pat O'Brien's days as a speakeasy. Sailors would come ashore and knock on the door with the password "storm's a brewin." It most certainly is.

Big Ass Beer

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Without the aid of punctuation and several samples deep, we come to an uncomfortable but vital question about this Bourbon Street staple. Is this a "Big Ass" Beer, or is this a Big "Ass Beer"? The mind reels with grim possibility.

The Big "Ass Beer" is an exercise in simplicity — a simple, light American-style lager, served in an oversized plastic cup made to look like a standard beer bottle. The real magic here is in the nose — the street itself takes most of its distinctive odor from a coating of this drink's contents at least a century deep, and so a moment or two hovering over the Big "Ass Beer" brings you into an almost spiritual communication with the reveler's residue of a bygone era.

Hand Grenade

There are really only three ways to describe the hand grenade: watermelon Jolly Rancher, watermelon Jolly Rancher, watermelon Jolly Rancher.

A bold combination of grain alcohol and Hand Grenade mix, the Hand Grenade is the only true competition to the Hurricane on the street. First introduced in 1992, the true contents remain a closely guarded secret by inventor and sole legal purveyor, Tropical Isle. It's bright and sweet, with a hint of melon and a fiery kick that hits you somewhere halfway down your esophagus and spreads like a pleasingly debilitating virus from there. Try to match this with a nearby Lucky Dog — a powerfully salty sausage with some sweet ketchup is one of the few foods capable of going toe to toe with this formidable drink.

As an added bonus, the distinctive bright green yard glass makes you easy to spot from a distance, because you are going to be terribly lost.

The Daiquiri

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The original Daiquiri is a beautifully straightforward cocktail — clear, sweet rum mixed with simple syrup and lime juice, topped with a few ice cubes and best enjoyed on a white sand beach. The New Orleans Daiquiri has a different take.

The Daiquiri is mostly noteworthy not so much for quality as quantity. A full drink will put you back more than a pound of dense, syrupy sweet booze, served up in a constant slush insulated from the New Orleans heat by a simply styrofoam cup. While some of these other drinks might encourage energetic debauchery, but the basic act of locomotion can be a struggle after a large daiquiri. The difference between flavors is more aesthetic than anything else — hours later, would you rather be seen expelling a bright blue "hypnotic chill," or a pink "crawgator"? The truly adventurous may mix several together, though the color is known to suffer.

At 12:00 on a Tuesday, the average Daiquiri shop provides an image that would make Edward Hopper weep: a dim, seedy bar, the bright noonday sun barely breaking through the haze left from the night before, a few scattered old men hunched over bright pink yard glasses, lonely neon mixing vats spinning above them, keeping drinks slushy for patrons that may never come.

The Resurrection

A relative newcomer from "Spirits on Bourbon," The Resurrection is actually the product of the reality show Bar Rescue, when consultant Jon Taffer re-did an ailing establishment by realizing that the key to success on Bourbon Street was to pierce the endless sensory overload that flows from all directions. A bright blue drink in a skull-shaped cup with flashing lights on the bottom just about do the trick.

It helps that this one is actually sort of palatable, with a sweet but not overpowering taste — the rum tempered by pineapple juice and touched off with a little kick provided by the jalapeno garnish. It's one of the few drinks on Bourbon with ingredients that don't have "mix" in the name: rum, blue curacao, pineapple juice, honey syrup and the aforementioned garnish, to be exact. At $15, this is one the pricier cocktails on this list, or, for that matter, in New Orleans. But it's worth it to ensure that the small plastic man who gave his life for its vessel did not die in vain.